This invention relates to adjustable hitches for attachment to motor vehicles for the purpose of towing or hauling a movably mounted load such as a trailer, cart or another vehicle.
In the prior art a horizontal receiver tube has been secured to the bumper or rear plate of a vehicle. In this prior device, the receiver tube is itself welded to a separate flat plate and the separate plate is secured as by bolts to the vehicle bumper or rear vehicle plate. The receiver tube has a pair of holes in opposite walls so that a bar likewise having holes extending therethrough can be slidingly received within the receiver tube, with a pin inserted through the holes in the receiver tube and in the bar to securely hold the slide bar within the receiver tube. However, this device has the disadvantage that should the receiver tube become detached from the mounting plate through the welds breaking, the receiver tube and the slide bar, and thus the trailer or other object to which the slide bar is connected, become detached from the vehicle and thus can roll off the road and crash into the surrounding environment such as telephone poles or trees and suffer great damage.
In the prior art there is also the use of an EAZ-LIFT brand adjustable hitch which has a horizontal slide bar with a vertical tube secured thereto as by welds. A gusset connects the slide bar to the vertical tube at the corner of one of the junctions thereof. The vertical tube has a plurality of pairs of aligned holes. An L-shaped hitch ball support has a horizontal rear end that has a hitch ball mounted thereto, and has a vertical leg that has a pair of flanges projecting forwardly therefrom which extend along two of the sides of the vertical tube connected to the slide bar. The flanges have two pairs of aligned holes for alignment with a selected two pairs of holes in the vertical tube, with two bolts passing through the two sets of aligned holes to hold the L-shaped ball support at various selected positions relative to the vertical tube. With this device there is no benefit of a fully enclosed supporting structure, since the two flanges and the vertical leg of the ball support only extend around three-fourths of the vertical tube. Additionally, the mounting of the hitch balls on opposite sides of the flange portions is impaired, because even if the horizontal part of the ball support were extended beyond the flanges, such a modified ball hitch would severely limit the range of sliding adjustability of the ball support, since such a modified ball support would strike the bottom of the vertical tube to prevent further upward movement. Because the flanges do not entirely extend about the vertical tube, it is necessary to have two pins passing through the flanges and through the vertical tube in order to prevent severe pivoting of the ball support relative to the vertical tube and the resulting banging of the ball support against the vertical tube. The use of the two pins to attach the ball support which pins are necessarily positioned below and above one another also limits the range of vertical adjustability of the hitch.
The present invention improves over the prior art. It comprises a front receiver tube which can be mounted horizontally to the rear bumper or plate of a vehicle as by angle irons. The angle irons have their upper horizontal legs secured as by bolts to the bumper and have their vertical legs secured such as by welding to the front receiver tube. The depending legs of the angles have aligned holes therein which also are aligned with a pair of holes extending through the front receiver tube.
The invention has a substantially vertical rear receiver tube which is secured to an horizontal slide bar. The slide bar fits telescopically within the front receiver tube. The slide bar has a pair of holes for alignment with the holes in the angle legs and in the first receiver tube so that an angled lock pin can pass through the holes and be secured by a spring clip to hold the slide bar securely to the vehicle. The rear receiver tube has a first pair of holes in opposite facing walls.
A separate mount tube interacts with the rear receiver tube. The mount tube has one end connected to a mount plate which plate mounts a pair of hitch balls. The mount tube has a first set of plurality of pairs of aligned holes. The mount tube is sized so to be slidingly and telescopically received within the rear receiver tube so that any one of the pair of the mount tube holes can be aligned with the first pair of holes in the rear receiver tube to permit a second angled lock pin to telescopically pass therethrough and be engaged by a spring clip to firmly hold the mount tube and the mount plate in a selected position. This allows a great range and adjustability for the mount tube and mount plate. The rear receiver tube is open at its upper and lower end so that the mount tube can be inserted through either the upper or lower end and thus the mount plate can be mounted to be either or above or below the rear receiver tube. The same second lock pin can be used to telescopically pass through a selected pair of plurality of holes in the mount tube and through the holes in the rear receiver tube in either the lower or upper mount tube position to hold the mount tube and mount plate in the selected position.
A locking and anti-sliding rod is also provided. A second plurality of pairs of holes extend in oppositely facing walls of the mount tube, preferably in a different pair of walls than the ones through which the holes extend for reception of the locking pin. The rear receiver tube can likewise have a second pair of aligned holes in oppositely facing walls so that a selected pair of the second set of holes in the mount tube can be aligned with the second pair of holes in the rear receiver tube and a locking rod such as a bolt telescopically passed therethrough and secured by a nut to further hold the mount tube and mount plate in a selected position. The second set of holes in the mount tube and second pair of holes in the rear receiver tube can be smaller than the first set of holes.
The mount plate in the embodiment illustrated is mounted to the mount tube to form a T shape so that hitch balls can be mounted to the mount plate on both sides of the mount tube. The hitch balls can be different sizes and can be detachably mounted to the mount plate so that they can be positioned on either the exterior side of the mount plate or the interior side of the mount plate. Thus when the position of the mount tube and mount plate are reversed relative to the second receiver tube, a selected hitch ball can also have its position reversed relative to the mount plate so that it can be used with the mount plate in either the upper or the lower position. A coupler for the trailer or other thing to be towed can be connected to the hitch ball.
With the present invention, the mounting of the horizontal front receiver tube to the vehicle via the angle members and pin overcomes the problem of a weld breaking between a mounting member such as the angle and the front receiver tube. If the weld between the angles and the front receiver tube breaks, the slide bar and the rest of the hitching assembly will nevertheless remain attached to the vehicle by virtue of the lock pin which extends through the angles and through the horizontal front receiver tube and to the slide bar. This provides a great advantage in safety and in avoiding the ruinous damage which follows from an accident with a runaway trailer or vehicle.
The invention further provides the advantage of having the mount tube fully enclosed by the rear receiver tube so that all the walls of the rear receiver tube resist outward movement of the mount tube when forces are applied to the mount tube to force it against one part or another of the rear receiver tube. The use of the rear receiver tube rather than the flanged assembly of the prior art also permits a single lock pin passing through the mount tube and through the rear receiver tube to securely hold the mount tube and to prevent wobbling and banging. The fact that the mount tube has its sides in contact on all four sides with the rear receiver tube from the top to the bottom of the rear receiver tube, resists any wobbling tendency.
The use of the rear receiver tube and the mount tube with the single pin which provides for the reversible characteristic of the mount tube relative to the rear receiver tube permits a great versatility in the range at which the mount plate can be positioned.
The mount tube and rear receiver tube combination further provides ease in having the mount plate attached to the end of the mount tube so that hitch balls can be placed on either side of the mount tube on either the interior or exterior side of the mount plate to thus give greater versatility, and to avoid having to constantly be changing the size of the hitch balls.
The locking and anti-sliding rod prevents sliding of the mount tube within the rear receiver tube, and should the second lock pin be removed by a vandal, or become accidentally disengaged or broken, the rod will continue to engage the mount tube to the rear receiver tube.
The present invention thus offers advantage features in safety and in efficient operation and use.